Crazy (Or Not So Crazy) Things I Do to Save Money

November 17, 2016

When you’re living on a budget, the little things count. This is a list of things that I do to save money. Should everyone have the exact same list? Of course not. Everybody values various things differently. I’m sure there are things that you do to save money that I’d much rather pay more for (like oil changes), and there will be things on my list that you’d rather not do. But hopefully there will be a few things that do inspire you. And feel free to share things that you do as well! Note- for comparison’s sake, I’ve tried my best to figure all costs as for a single person.

Making Coffee at Home

Occasionally I’ll splurge on a really good cup of coffee, but most of the time brewing Maxwell House at home is good enough for me.

Making Breakfast at Home

Every morning, I take a little time to make a fried egg or two and a couple of slices of toast. Sure, not the full breakfast spread some are used to, but enough to get me going for the day. Skipping breakfast altogether would be even worse, since that would leave me vulnerable to endless snacking.

Using LED Light Bulbs

As the incandescent light bulbs in our house burn out one by one, I’m replacing them with 60-watt equivalent LED bulbs. Same brightness, lower electric usage, longer life. Clear win.

The alternative: Incandescent bulbs, $0.36/month per bulb assuming average of 2 hours of use per day. Cost: Since the higher cost of the LED bulb is more than covered by the longer life, assume no cost. Savings: 20 bulbs at $0.36/month each, $86.4/year

Biking to Work

In the summer months, when it’s not raining, I’ll ride my bike to work. It takes about 7 minutes longer for the 3-mile-one-way commute, but I enjoy the exercise and it saves a lot of in-town wear and tear on my car.

Driving a Small Car

This is not a new car vs used car issue to me- we bought one of our vehicles new and the other very used. Rather this is not buying a bigger, more luxurious car than I need. I wouldn’t get much more enjoyment out of driving a Lamborghini than my Hyundai Accent. And I don’t need both my vehicles to be the size of a Yukon. What we’ve settled for is a Hyundai Accent as a commuter car and a Dodge Caravan as a kid hauler. The comparisons could be endless here, so to keep it realistic, I’ll just compare our 2016 Hyundai Accent to the larger 2016 Hyundai Sonata.

For fun, check out the TCO on the Hyundai Equus- my savings would work out to $8,637/year.

Wearing Clothes Until They Wear Out

It helps that I hate shopping for new clothes, but I will wear my clothes until they have holes in them. As they progressively wear out, they get downgraded from ‘good clothes’ to ‘around the house’ clothes to ‘working in the yard’ clothes to ‘washing the car’ rags. That’s right- I’m too cheap to toss them until they’ve been used as rags. This is also why I’m trying to learn to buy clothes that last.

Washing Clothes Only When They Need It

I’m a huge fan of the ‘smell test’. Or, since I have small kids, the ‘is-there-unknown-substances-stuck-on’ test. My shirts get washed after each wear, but my jeans can easily go several days. Not only do more frequent loads of laundry cost more, but they also wear clothes out faster, meaning I need to go clothes shopping more often.

The alternative: more laundry, more frequent clothes shopping. Savings: I-have-no-clue.

Shopping Garage Sales

With garage sales, we’ve had much more luck with finding gently used kids clothes than adult clothes, partly because adults come in so many shapes and sizes. Probably also partly because kids outgrow clothes so fast.

The alternative: brand new clothes that the kids will outgrow in less than a year, $10/outfit. Our cost: $1 per outfit. Savings: $9 per outfit, 10 per year, $90 per kid/year

Keeping our House Warmer in the Summer and Cooler in the Winter

I try and keep the heater and the air conditioner off as long as possible, but eventually I cave. In the summer, our thermostat gets set at 78, and in the winter it stays at 64 daytime, 60 nightime. I know there are some of you out there that go more extreme than this!

The alternative: 72 year round. Savings: guesswork here, but a rule of thumb is that you save 3% of your heating or cooling bill per degree moved. Since I’m heating 8-12 degrees below 72, that means my $200/winter heating bill is 30% lower than it could have been. That’s a savings of $85/year just on heating. The guesswork gets even more guess-ier when it comes to the air conditioning since the air conditioning is part of my overall electric bill. I won’t even go there…

Skipping on Cable

We don’t have a TV, so therefore no cable bill.

The alternative: 2015’s average cable bill of $99/month. Savings: $1,188/year

Skipping on Home Phone

Since we both carry cell phones, there’s no reason to spend on a home phone too.

I Still Spend Money On Things…

While it’s important to not spend money mindlessly, you should still make sure you fit the things you do value to you into your budget.

Oil Changes

I get told a lot that doing my own oil changes would save me tons. But I’d much rather not. I’m not that much of a car guy (see my comment above regarding my indifference between a Hyundai and a Lamborghini). I’ve got a mechanic that I completely trust. Having him do the oil changes saves me time and hassle, and allows him to do his routine inspection and catch any other maintenance that I need to do on my car. I’m convinced that these routine inspections are the reason that we’ve yet to be stranded roadside, even when we’ve taken our aging caravan on 4,000 mile road trips (knock on wood).

Internet

We lived completely without internet for 2 years, and then another 2 years with just the internet on our smartphones. With frequent trips to the library, it’s definitely doable, but we finally splurged on the convenience of being online at home.

Splurge: $38/month, $456/year

And So Much More…

My list of things that I do spend money on could go on. Even the list of how I save money is still loaded with hidden splurges- the occasional Starbucks coffee, the fact that we have smartphones, owning two cars. I enjoy my Time magazine subscription. We treat ourselves to a zoo and science center membership. Every once in a while I take my wife out to dinner (and maybe even a movie). So while I like to find areas in my life to save money on, there are still things that I think are worth spending money on. Again, your list will be different from mine.

Your Turn…

What are your favorite ways to save? Leave them in the comments and inspire other readers!

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Comments

This is an impressive list. I love that you are spending money on things that you actual value and saving on things that you don’t. Such a smart thing to do that too few people actually do. People too often pay for convenience over value. Sounds like you have your priorities lined up 🙂

None of those things sound crazy to me (probably because we try to do most of them, too!). It’s definitely challenging when people roll their eyes at your frugality, though. I just take comfort in the fact that I’m doing my best to live within my means. I may be wearing Goodwill clothes, but I look damn good doing it!

1. Buy carseats used. Not everyone is comfortable with this but a new seat can cost $200, and a used one can usually be found on Craigslist for $50 or less. As long as you trust the person who says it hasn’t been in an accident, and as long as it isn’t expired, you can save lots of money, especially if you have multiple kids, two cars, and kids who outgrow their seats quickly. We currently have 6 carseats and I think we paid a combined $300 for all of them.

2. Do you own minor home and car repairs by watching Youtube. You can usually get the part for pretty cheap and there are an abundance of videos that will show you exactly what to do. It can save hundreds on a repair visit and then additional costs of parts. (Recent example, we replaced our fridge’s thermostat for the cost of a $20 part. It would have cost well over $200 to have a repairman come on-site.)